(You Feel Like) Home
by SassyLittleBrunette
Summary: [rewrite of my previous GH story, !Devane daughter ofc x Morgan Corinthos ] Home can be more than just a physical dwelling. And for Leora Hayward, home hasn't ever really.. been home. She's close to her father David, but she's guarded. One comatose John Doe and a determined birth mother will change all that.
1. Confrontation & Awakening

Authors Note: Instead of putting it at the bottom, I'll stick it up here. This is a total rewrite of my previous GH story. And yes, I'm still going to be pairing Leora Hayward with Morgan Corinthos. I just have so much more to work with now, in terms of plot and stuff because Anna looking for Heinrich would be the perfect way for Anna to stumble across the fact that David's known Leora was alive and kept it from her. Maybe when she was digging for one child, the WSB database got confused and gave her documents pertaining to the other? Kind of something like that, anyway.. Yeah. Plot for Leora and Morgan is kinda taken from several different romantic movies and yeah.. Planning to do a massive revamp/slight improvement to Morgan's character and the dreadful direction they were heading with it. Maybe wanting to revisit the time period when he was a good kid and besties with Molly? But first.. Amnesia. Just for shits and giggles. This way, he's truly a blank slate.

I really, really, really hope you all enjoy this as I personally loved writing this story, old version and honestly, with this version, I'm sort of proud at how this first chapter came together. If you have questions, given how weird this plot is and who my ofc is, feel free to ask in a personal message to my account.

* * *

She swore when she left Pine Valley she'd never come back. But if there was any truth to what she'd dug up on her former husband David Hayward, she had to know. The fact that Leora could have been taken from them and then reunited with him at a later point in life and he'd be as selfish as to not tell her about it.. Anna Devane had been angry before.

Never this angry.

She'd raised her hand to knock on the door, David's new wife Krystal opened it and stared at her a few seconds with a puzzled look and then, she shut the door in her face and called out to David to come to the door.

She peeked out again in a few seconds to politely tell Anna, "He's on his way downstairs." as Anna merely nodded, tapped her feet impatiently against the decking on the front porch of the house.

What would have been their home if Leora hadn't died and everything hadn't gone to hell all around them both. Anna sighed bitterly and shook her head. Even that thought didn't do anything to sort of quell her anger and remind her that David had suffered too until their child came back into his life as a teenager.

The door opened and David gaped at his former wife standing there, completely and totally shocked.

"Anna.. What are you doing here?"

"I have to ask you something, David. And you'd better tell me the truth because I know you too well and I'll know if you're lying to me."

"What you mean is you already have an answer, you've been digging." David's stomach churned as he had a split second panic. He had a feeling he knew exactly where this particular conversation of theirs was heading.

And he was not going to enjoy it. A lot of old pain was about to come up. And the truth, when it came out, that might just be the thing that cost him a fragile reconciliation with his wife Krystal. Because she didn't even know the extent of David Hayward's deepest secret.

She'd only met Leora a hand full of times. David managed to keep Leora hidden from anyone and everyone who might pry, leaving town for a while to raise her elsewhere.. Putting her in exclusive and good boarding schools during the school year. When she did come home for holidays, she tended to keep to herself or stick close to family and whenever anyone asked, he explained that her mother died when she'd been born and that she'd been a fling and he'd been Leora's only living relative. It helped that officially, on all the documents David had for their daughter, Leora's given name was Ruby.

But apparently, his luck was running out because Anna was here now and she was angry and pacing and ranting at him about what he'd done and all he could do was stand there and let everything come crashing down.

In a way, having the truth be out was freeing.

In other ways, David felt like an actual piece of fucking scum. And in hindsight, his entire reasoning for keeping Anna from their daughter made no actual sense.

It was happening and David didn't try to stop it. Maybe it was time Anna got to be close to their daughter.

He should have done it years ago. He should have gone to her as soon as he knew for sure that Leora was who she claimed to be and she was alive and well. He should have tried to fix things instead of being so centered on revenge and anger, hatred for the hasty decision that Anna made without consulting him.

"She's living in Benson Hurst." David's words stopped Anna mid sentence and she just stared at him, stunned, as her face drained of all color and before she could say anything, she reached out and she slapped him in the face hard enough to turn his face to one side on impact.

"You bloody bastard."

"Anna.."

"Nothing you can say will ever fix this, David! Know that."

Without another word, she turned to walk out the door but David stopped her and shoved years and years of photo albums in her arms. And what he said when he finally opened his mouth again really shocked her because it was not something she expected David to say.

"She calls at least twice a week to check in.. When I talk to her this time, I'll make her come home for a weekend.. And I'll tell her everything.. I swear I will… Just.. Let me have that, please?"

"Not on your miserable life, David Hayward." Anna's eyes were cold, so much colder than he'd ever seen them and she turned stiffly on her heels and walked down to a waiting car.

Once Anna was inside her rental car, she completely broke down.

She must have sat in the diner in town for at least an hour, poring through the albums, living years she'd been denied with her daughter through pictures and letters that their daughter wrote home to David while she was away at boarding schools all over the world.

It sickened her that David could even begin to think his doing this was ever going to be forgiven or forgotten.

She sighed quietly and she took out her phone, texting Griffin and then, she called Robin.

"Mom?"

"We need to talk."

"What's going on? Did you find who you were looking for?"

"I found one of them yes.. Robin, it's about your sister Leora.. She's not.. Dead. David lied and he kept her from us after she sought him out as a teenager."

"Mom? What are you saying right now?"

"I'm saying that Leora is alive. And according to that snake in the grass who donated sperm, she's living in Benson Hurst. And she's working at the hospital there as an intern."

"Mom.. If what you're saying is true.."

"She doesn't go by Leora. That witch who kidnapped her in the first place liked the middle name we gave her, so she made your sister's middle name her first name on all the documents she had forged when she illegally adopted her."

"Does Leora know?"

"David's been lying to her so what do you think?"

"Are you going to meet her?"

"You bet your ass I will. I'm going to make sure she knows the truth. And then I have to continue my search for your half brother.. Everything Robert and I have found is leading us back to Port Charles it seems, so we'll talk about everything in a few hours when I'm back home again.."

* * *

"Hey stud.. I'm back." Leora spoke softly to the comatose man lying in bed as she pushed the door open and started to adjust the lighting so that she could see his charts and any new notes that the nurse from the previous shift might have made. She was just glancing at the chart when she could have sworn she heard this quiet.. Groan.

She put it out of her head. This hospital was old and practically falling apart for the most part. It made noises all the time. She'd just changed out his drips and she turned her back to reach something when she heard it again.

But like the last time, when she turned and looked at John Doe, the unknown coma patient lying in the hospital bed, not a sign he'd been the one to make the noise. But it was noted on his chart that the previous nurse thought she heard the same thing.

Rather than do her thing and get out like she usually did, Leora felt compelled to sit down. Sometimes she did this. It didn't sit right with her that this guy was going through this alone.. No one ever came to visit him.

So now and then, she'd sit with him for a few hours.

"They're takin you off the machines Friday, John.. And I hope like hell everything's okay.. and you wake up. Your family has to miss you, I mean.. It's been two years."

She paused because she could have sworn that she heard it again, the quiet groan.. Almost like a whisper.. And she blinked because she could've sworn that when she leaned in to brush hair out of his face like she did on occasion when she sat with him like this, she saw him make this movement.. With his foot.

"Ya know, John.. I bet the girls fall all over you when you're outta here. We really, really love a man with good scars.. and stubble." she completed the movement she'd been about to make, brushing jet black hair out of his face and sort of just.. Lingering over him for a few seconds.

"I'm going to miss these little visits. I've been able to tell you things that I've never told anyone and.. this is going to sound horribly pathetic, John but seeing you during my afternoon rounds has been a highlight of so many days.. I just always feel more comfortable in here.. With you.. I know it'd be different if you weren't in a coma.. I'm not.. nearly as brave as you might think.." she shook her head and laughed at herself, muttered quietly, "What the fuck even am I doing.. he probably cannot hear a thing I'm saying." before a brief pause to brush her bangs back away from her eyes. She sighed quietly and then she continued, "Anyway, I just wanted to say that.. In case things go good for you and you're finally on your way to recovery when the machines come out.. My name is Leora."

She stood, smoothed the cover back down on the bed and she made her way out of the room, turning off the light overhead as she went.

And lying there, in the darkness, Morgan's eyes fluttered open and he groaned out loud when he went to sit and every part of his body felt so fucking stiff..

Sometime around midnight the third shift nurse walked into the room to check on him and change his drip for the hour and she almost fainted when she caught sight of him, trying to get out of bed .

By the time the doctors and nurses all got done poking and prodding at him, all he wanted was the quiet back. When it finally returned, he lie there, trying to remember who he was and how he'd gotten here in the first place but nothing was coming.

When that got to be a pain in the ass, he found himself trying to picture the way that one nurse Leora actually looked in person.. Because she had this soft and soothing voice. And when she'd said everything she had earlier, he'd actually been starting to awaken.. And he tried so hard to give her some kind of indication that he was, but she hadn't seemed to notice.

Everything she'd ever told him was stored in his mind though..Now he just desperately wanted a face to go with her voice and her name… It'd be nice if he could remember his own name too.. But according to the doctor, with his case, he was lucky to even be alive right now without any serious damage.. The amnesia would hopefully correct itself in time.

In the meantime, now that he was finally awake, there was one thing he fully intended to do.. He was going to meet Leora, face to face.. Because you don't just hear the same soft and soothing voice over and over for two years and not feel some kind of connection to that voice.. In some ways, given that she'd been the only nurse who really talked to him at all, her voice was what kept him tethered to reality and kept him from just.. Slipping out quietly.

There was just something about it.

He got this feeling that if they'd met while he was awake and copacetic, he definitely could have enjoyed getting to know her.

… _and now, I'll have that chance_ … I'll just have to ask the nurse in the morning what her full name is and stuff.. Morgan thought to himself as he settled back into the uncomfortable hospital bed and flipped through shitty late night / early morning infomercials.


	2. Face To Face

Authors Note: Aand this chapter.. We get to really see just how big of a hot mess / weirdo / nerd that Leora really is. She has her bolder moments buuut. She's a mess, okay? Anyway, this happens one week after the first chapter. Morgan's been awake and Leora, after realizing that she kinda got attached to her patient, she asked for a transfer.. Morgan finds her.

Basically just some awkward / kinda hot / cute fluff between Morgan and Leora. I promise, the next chapter will more than likely have a little Anna in it. And most likely, some Sonny and Carly.. because I kinda have an idea in mind already, I just have to figure out how to properly execute it.. And yay! I love you, my one follower! So glad you decided to risk it and read this!

* * *

She hadn't seen him in a little over a week. The entire coma ward was talking about how he'd woken up just two days shy of what the doctors deemed his 'expiration date', or the date that they planned to remove all the machines and see what happened.. And he'd woken up with practically zero damage, at that. A nasty case of amnesia, but it was understandable. He'd been the equivalent of a human vegetable for two whole years.

Honestly, Leora hadn't thought she'd see him again. She figured that he was on the mend now, that he'd finish his two week stay in the hospital and that would be that. So, it surprised her when her eyes caught his in the reflection of a chrome elevator door just as she was getting ready to leave work for the evening and waiting on an elevator down to the parking garage.

"John Doe.. As I live and breathe." before she could stop herself it slipped out. And he nodded. Given that he couldn't remember his actual name, John seemed to work for now. Leora exhaled a little, it was almost like her breath just kinda.. Caught in her throat.

If she thought he was drop dead gorgeous just lying there in that hospital bed, nothing compared to the sight of him fully awake and alive. Bright eyes.. These lips that just.. Summoned to mind dark alleys and hungry kisses where lips were bitten and hands were everywhere.

Something about him, now that she was seeing him fully awake.. It stirred her long dormant sex drive and for the first time in a long time, Leora Hayward couldn't just shove all the racy thoughts out of her head and replace them with good old fashioned common sense like she'd always done before.

Something about her John Doe seemed to make her want to throw all reason or common sense out the window.. To let her guard down entirely. To get so wrapped up.. She bit her lip, stopping the trail of thought before it went any further and she cleared her throat. "Figured our head nurse would have made you shave that. She hates stubble of any kind. Even made it a rule on our floor that all male doctors must be clean shaven."

"Damn.. That sounds harsh." Morgan couldn't stop staring at her eyes, they were this bright and almost golden shade of brown and so bright. And that teasing little smile she flashed at him when she spoke to him at first.. He shook his head as if to clear the distraction from his mind and then he cleared his throat. "I wanted to thank you."

"For, sweetheart?"

… _holy shit, Leora, could you be any more out there today?_ … the thought came and vanished quickly and she blushed at this strange burst of boldness that for whatever reason seemed to be taking over.

Tonight was a full moon. She was totally blaming that.

"Well, the nurses told me that you kinda.. Sat with me.. Y'know, on holidays and stuff. And you probably have your own family and stuff and that had to be taking.." but she was shaking her head and she sort of raised her hand, pressed her index finger to his lips and then explained calmly, "I was not raised to leave someone alone in the hospital on a holiday. It's wrong, okay? I couldn't just let you lie there. So it's not a big deal."

"But.."

"No buts, John. I wasn't doing anything else, okay?"

"No family?" … way to go nimrod, like that wasn't an obvious and pathetic attempt to find out if she's single.. he thought the thought to himself quickly, but he ignored it.

Things seemed to be going well.

"No. I mean there's my dad but he's living in Pine Valley and I'm sort of not speaking to him currently."

"Ouch." Morgan winced a little at the remark but Leora shrugged and admitted quietly, "I just.. can't forgive what he did."

"What'd he do?"

"He lied about so much shit."

"Ah, yeah. I cannot blame you there." Morgan nodded as he spoke. He got this feeling that before the amnesia and his coma.. He hadn't liked being lied to, either.. And for whatever reason, he also got the sense that maybe, it happened to him a lot. So much that he'd been about to completely give up.

He hoped it wasn't true because if it was, that meant that his life hadn't been this amazing life that he'd sort of dreamt about while he'd been out. Finding out that in the entire two years that he was under, no one came to see him once had been a bit of a downer.. He wondered if he had anyone and honestly, if he didn't, he got this very distinct feeling that maybe he deserved it. Maybe he'd been a horrible person and all the happier times he'd dreamt of while in the coma were just illusions, just his brain fighting for a reason to hold on. This was when he wasn't trying to form a mental image of the appearance of the young woman attached to that sultry and soft and soothing voice he'd hear talking to him at a low volume most days, of course.. Because he'd done his fair share of that too.

He towered over her, he couldn't help but notice it as he stood in front of her. She came to about mid chest.. Just enough of a height difference to make it so that if he were to kiss her… He trailed off the thought, stopping it in it's tracks. Just because she was nice and she'd sat with him rather than leaving him alone in that room in his coma to rot, that didn't mean he had any right whatsoever to these thoughts he was bombarded by.

The silence was heavy. Not necessarily in a bad way for Leora, but it was heavy and it was definitely filled with.. Something. Leora cleared her throat and then she told him calmly, "I'm glad you found me. I was starting to wonder if everything was okay."

"The head nurse said you transferred floors. Why?" Morgan stared down at her, curious.

… _because I got so used to you being in that room… because I'm pathetic and you're probably my only friend here and surprise, you were in a coma the entire time… because I needed to get away and break ties because what I did with you was not a healthy thing and I need to start dealing with actual people_ … But she didn't say that, she couldn't say any of it. He'd think she was crazy. She sort of felt like it. She wouldn't lie, she definitely had her issues.

She went with a safe answer instead. "They needed someone who could work crazy hours on the maternity ward.." because technically, it wasn't a total lie. They had needed another nurse to work crazy hours because the one they had just quit to move to another hospital with better pay and less demand on her.

"Oh." they'd started to walk away from the elevator now. Leora had chosen to double back and grab a drink from the vending machine in the hallway. The nursery caught her eye and she couldn't help but smile and put her hand against the glass, stopping to look at all the newborn babies.

Morgan was standing next to her, glancing at the nursery and then her and he chuckled. "You have a cute smile.. It's cuter than I tried picturing it to be." and almost as soon as he blurted it out, he wanted to kick himself.

Why couldn't he just stop it with the flirting and the thoughts? She was too nice for that. Too nice for him, most likely.

"You.. Could hear me." the words came out a little flat and Morgan tensed. Was he not supposed to hear some of the things she'd told him in the week or so before he officially woke up? Because he hadn't been able to help it, her voice gave him something to focus on other than the jumble of his mind and the constant struggle to wake up versus just letting go because he was alone and aside from her voice, all there was was silence. Leora sighed and told him quietly, "It's okay, I don't mind just.. I didn't think you could and some of the shit I said.."

"Is totally fine." Morgan spoke up quickly, trying to reassure her. He chuckled and couldn't resist the teasing smirk when he moved just a little closer and added in a quieter tone, "You kept calling me stud."

"Because at first, it was.. Easier. I thought that a teasing nickname was easier than an actual first name. There's this unspoken rule for what nurses in my field do and that's do not get attached.. Because you never know which way a patient will go in.. Your situation.. But.."

"But what?" she was looking down now so Morgan tilted her chin as he asked the question. Wait a minute, was he really holding his breath right now?

Yeah, he realized, he was.

"But I kinda did, okay? It was so easy to talk to you, to say all these things that I normally.. can't.. And I even tried to imagine what you were like, you know.. Before.." she swallowed hard. She sounded like a nutcase right now and she was rambling. Why hadn't she just kept her mouth shut?

This couldn't be anything but awkward for the poor guy, her seeming so needy.

Instead of a repulsed look, which she honestly figured she'd get, after a few seconds of him just sort of standing there.. Staring down at her and biting his lip.. He gave this grin and then laughed.

"Do I really make you that nervous, Leora Hayward?"

"You.. Found out my name."

"I wanted to know. So yeah, I asked around."

"For the record, you don't make me nervous. I'm kinda skittish to begin with." Leora blurted it out quickly, grimacing at the words as they left her lips. There were so many little things she just.. Hated.. about herself. And the fact that she couldn't just be stronger by now and let all the shit from her past stop coming back to bother and haunt and hurt her was the biggest one.

"I can't blame you, if any of the stuff you told me almost two weeks ago is true and you really lived through all that." Morgan answered it quickly, again wincing. Because what she'd told him about her childhood with the woman who basically stole her from both her real parents had been the hardest thing he'd ever really had to hear.. Or he was at least 95 percent sure it had to be, it wasn't like he had any memories left from before the coma to compare it to..

"I did. And I need to stop letting it rule my life." Leora sighed and shook her head, then with a laugh, "I'm not trying to be a downer tonight.. Should you even be up though, I mean… You were in a coma for two years. No physical movement at all. They usually designate cases like yours as high fall risks until you're through therapy, I think? Not that I mind I just.. Don't want anything to happen to you."

… _shit.. laying it on thick, are we?_ …

"Doctor said that aside from bipolar, which I apparently had before the coma, I was in peak shape physically. So, I'm bouncing back pretty quick. Technically I'm not supposed to be up but hey.. I'm fine." he flashed this smirk that literally made her blush, she could feel her skin heating and he chuckled.

"That sucks.. About the bipolar, I mean. How'd they find out?"

"I.. kinda had a freakout or something."

Leora remembered hearing something about it, but honestly, she hadn't thought too much about it, if she'd just been in a coma for two whole years of her life, she'd have been a little panicked when she woke up too.

She hadn't heard anyone say anything about his being diagnosed with bipolar because of it though. She eyed him in concern. "They gave you medicine for it, right? And not the off brand crapola they give Doe patients.. Hang on."

"What?"

"We're going to talk to your doctor.. So I know they're not gonna give you the off brand crap."

"That's fine. I'm fine. Look, whatever they've given me, it's.. Helping. They told me that I must have been off my meds the night my accident happened.. It explains a lot. I just wish I could remember what happened.. Or who I was. That's the frustrating part."

"I can imagine." Leora was stepping closer, her hands at his forearms as if she were intending to keep him steady. She'd seen him sway just a little. He had to be getting tired by now. He'd been up a while. Because the coma ward was second floor and she was on the fifth now.

And they'd done a good bit of walking as they talked, too.

The smells of food from the little deli next to the cafeteria drifted up on an elevator as it slid open and Leora's stomach growled. It reminded her that she'd woke up too late to have food and lunch had passed her by because she'd gotten so busy that she just forgot.. Morgan eyed her and nodded to the elevator, but he winced and Leora shook her head.

"You're sitting. Now."

"I'm fine."

"You're going to overdo it."

"I'm fine. You need to eat. I heard your stomach growl."

"If you're that worried about it, we can find you a wheelchair and go downstairs to the cafeteria. But you are not walking down, no sir." Leora shook her head and Morgan chuckled and nodded to a wheelchair, flopping down into it.

It did feel better. He had been getting just a little tired. He'd never admit it.

"Now can we go? Because I don't wanna hear about my favorite nurse in this place starving to death."

"Ugh, fine. But I'm telling you. I'm a pig when I eat."


End file.
